Sunday, July 28, 2013

Ambrosial Amsterdam: Flevopark

Opened in 1931, the perfectly proportioned Flevopark is located on the eastern edge of the Indsiche Buurt, which is conveniently located just a quick roll of my bicycles' wheels away, down the end of my street, and just a little bit further more... Luscious is this delightful park and its welcoming eighteenth century limestone and wrought-iron entry gateway, and the park itself, of course, in all its tiny glory. The park merges the romantic English ideals with the pragmatic need for playgrounds and tennis courts, and other twenty-first century accessories, such as a café, or two. An ideal retreat from the hustle and bustle happening seemingly non-stop on Javastraat, the park's path's meander through the mature yet sumptuously spaced trees, their leaves heavy with water from last night's terribly lovely thunder and lighting storm; a heavy rain washed over this neighborhood and its households, shops, and green spaces in the early hours of the day, breaking the humid spell that the city has been cast beneath for the last week or two–so fierce, this uncommonly humid Amsterdam heat. Happy are we–I speak for the city and its plants–that the pleasant mid-evening summer-cool air has made its return, refreshing in its slight chill and dampness to this city's citizens' delight. Now that the city's public spaces have begun to dry out, the park was ripe for immersion this afternoon. Immerse within the mid-summer and richly varied hues of this scenically design driven park, would be how I spent today's sunnly-strewn, summer afternoon. Not an airplane in sight, not a car to be seen–and amplified by the surface of the garden's rather formal reflecting pool–clouds of the day flooded my vision, while thick walls of green, descending to the flowers I found near me, assisted in connecting me to the perceived natural landscape surrounding me completely. That connection I intend to make more fluid in the future. Artificial it may be, Felvopark is ambrosial in its seduction, and a true friend indeed.